Star Wars News: Working Title & Whistleblower Spills the T on THAT Rey Merchandising Controversy

Following on from the Pathetic Flimsy Excuses of toy companies (such as ‘Has-Bro’) regarding the general lack of Rey [No Current Last Name] merchandise, and the market saturated by emo manchild Kylo Ren (known also by ONTD geneticists everywhere as "Surely He Can’t Be Related To THEM!") merch from toys to clothes to homewares, an Industry Insider lifts the lid on bullshit nonsense glorified spoiler cut claims.

The Insider spoke to Sweatpants & Coffee on the condition of anonymity lest the Disney Hit Squad come kill them in the night, stating that despite the claims that leaving saviour of us all, Mother of Droids, Reysus Christ out of mass merchandising was due to keeping us all 'spoiler free', it was in fact entirely deliberate and a symptom of outdated gendered thinking.

tl;dr - it was somehow thought that consumers would relate more to Kylo Ren than Rey, and companies were deliberately instructed to exclude Rey from key merchandising.

-As we’re all well aware, it is next to impossible to find Rey merchandise, particularly when every shop is drowning in First Order Kylo Ren propaganda, trying to make us buy into their Empire-nostalgic totalitarian new galactic order claptrap.

An Industry Insider, who attended the confidential meetings in January 2015 in which toy and merchandise vendors descended upon Lucasfilm’s offices in San Francisco to pitch their product tie-in ideas, has spoken out.Company reps presented, pitched, discussed and agreed upon product prototypes, and according to this very Insider, the seeds of the current Rey controversy were sown there and then.

The Insider has revealed that during those meetings initial products were presented to Lucasfilm PROMINENTLY featuring Main Character Rey, and that whilst discussions were initially very positive, as meetings wore one "one or more Sith minions individuals raised concerns" about the presence of a female character in SW products – eventually the product vendors were directed to EXCLUDE Rey from all SW-related merchandising. The Insider was told "We know what sells [...] no boy wants to be given a product with a female character on it."

Lucasfilm have not responded to requests for comment.

It is becoming increasingly apparent that the gendered perceptions of the marketers is totally out of touch with consumer taste and demand – as the Insider says, the directive is very clear: "Maintain the sharp boy/girl product division. Marginalize girl characters in items not specifically marketed as girl-oriented."

-Read on at Source #1 for an in-depth discussion about the history and sociology of gendered toy merchandising from a leading academic expert...

-John Marcotte, founder of Heroic Girls (a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting positive strong role models for young women) reportedly spoke to Disney and says that they were "completely blindsided" by reaction to new characters.

"They put a huge investment into marketing and merchandizing the Kylo Ren character. They presumed he would be the big breakout role from the film. They were completely surprised when it was Rey everyone identified with and wanted to see more of. Now they’re stuck with vast amounts of Kylo Ren product that is not moving, and a tidal wave of complaints about a lack of Rey items."

-Companies are desperately playing catch up, and will be looking to push out more Rey products to meet demand and save their messy asses. They say they are "thrilled by the popularity of this compelling character”, but lbr they are one part freaking out, one part pressed that their Dark Side propaganda isn’t selling like they wanted, and one part ready to take advantage of our desire to fill our lives with All Things Rey.

-In other news, the working title of Future ONTD Critics Awards 2017 Film of the Year Star Wars: Episode VIII has been (possibly) revealed.

The working title was revealed in a casting/extras/photo doubles call by MovieCastingCall, as reported in ‘Trusted Reviews’.